benjamin netanyahu is weaker, he had a weak showing in the election. so the president is going over his head and he wants to begin a dialogue with the israeli people. show the united states is a friend of israel and show that israel taking more risks for peace than netanyahu has been willing to support is a good idea. this is the beginning of a long conversation. >> with us now from jerusalem andrea mitchell. andrea, given all that we've talked about and all the constraints and all the years that this has been in the making, what is the white house hoping to accomplish in this trip? >> reporter: well, they have accomplished already what they hope to accomplish and they'll do more with the speech today reaching over the heads as you've just been pointing out to the israeli people and especially to israeli youth. but one of the blogs on the jewish post today was he had us at shalom. his first words on getting off air force one. then he takes off his jacket, so netanyahu has to take off his jacket. they walk buddy-buddy across the tarmac. he goes and look